[CLUE-Talk] FW: Microsoft domains unavailable - MS explains

[Pat Lujan]

-----Original Message-----
From: Russ [mailto:Russ.Cooper at RC.ON.CA] 
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2001 1:19 AM
To: NTBUGTRAQ at LISTSERV.NTBUGTRAQ.COM
Subject: Re: Microsoft domains unavailable - MS explains


FYI;

http://www.microsoft.com/info/siteaccess.htm

MS' explanation is that a technician changed a configuration on a router
which resulted in their main DNS servers becoming unavailable. Stupid people
do make mistakes, but for a company the size of MS there's really no excuse
for such a blunder.

1. Clearly no peer vetting or management sign-off going on regarding
production changes.

2. Seems the corporation is not sufficiently aware of the importance of DNS,
despite its role in both .NET and ADSI. You think you might have a disaster
recovery plan that gets invoked within an hour of confirmation that DNS is
out...one that includes checking the router config for your DNS "network"?

3. Distributed design for such an important component should include
multiple sites. I suppose there could be some explanation that makes it
reasonable for a single router configuration change to bring down *all* of
your primary DNS servers, but you'd think it shouldn't be possible.

4. I'm sure we all feel better knowing that we must base all of our future
economy on something MS has found to be so fragile. I've always loved the
back-hoe story...this one has to rate up there with it.

5. Maybe Internet Explorer should offer the option of saving, into your
Favorites, URLs with simple names (http://www.microsoft.com) or
alternatively, just in case, IP addresses (http://207.176.151.11).

6. Maybe the DNS server administrators were all out watching that new
commercial of theirs?

Ok, enough bashing, mistakes happen, they just don't instill a great deal of
confidence when they do. My quotes of the day are;

"Anyone know if Liz Taylor has a job at ITG?"

"I'm doing a story on the site shortly...", he said, "But your site's
inaccessible around the world", I said, "Oh yeah. Well it'll be there when
people can get to it again.", he said.

Cheers,
Russ - Surgeon General of TruSecure Corporation/NTBugtraq Editor